A new electronic program will give public hospital doctors the power to order that their patients be treated in medical cities or public specialist centers when they deem it necessary. The program which will be launched in the next few months will get rid of the bureaucracy accompanying the issuance of orders for the treatment of Saudi nationals in hospitals. It will achieve this by linking all health facilities under a system known as “electronic transfer” (Ihala), according to reports in a section of the Arabic press on Tuesday. A Ministry of Health source said: “This program will tackle the haphazard transfer of patients to hospitals by 18 Ministry of Health regional medical commissions. These commissions process patient transfers to hospitals after studying medical reports issued by doctors. This delays procedures and hinders the transfer of some patients.” The source also revealed that 1,403 patients received treatment abroad last year at hospitals in different countries including the Philippines, USA, Europe and China. The former Director of the Medical General Commission in the Directorate of Health Affairs in Jeddah Dr. Adnan Alfi said the new Ihala program will link all government hospitals with all the medical facilities in the Kingdom. It will also give doctors wide powers to refer patients directly to specialist hospitals using an easy electronic system. There are several reasons behind the long wait before patients can be transferred to other hospitals in the Kingdom or abroad. These include bureaucratic procedures and filing applications to the Medical General Commission in the region's directorate of health affairs with a medical report from the treating doctor. The commission then sends the papers to the health attaché in the country specified for the patient's treatment. Dr. Alfi said: “Quite often the medical reports sent by health centers in those countries are imprecise thus necessitating the sending of other more detailed reports. All these procedures delay the patient's treatment. Other reasons include the patient's arrival in the country abroad during a holiday there. This causes extra pressure on the health facilities recognized by the Ministry of Health.”
